PAX Day 2: Rusty Hearts

PAX Day 2: Rusty Hearts

By Darren Henderson (DizzyPW), OnRPG Editor-In-Chief

Day 2 of PAX began with a trip to the back corner of the convention to see Perfect World Entertainment. We were quickly whisked to the back of the booth by the lovely Christine Yeo to have a meeting with Mark Hill, the face of Rusty Hearts!

Rusty Hearts is now geared up and ready for Closed Beta phase 2 and the changes made between phases felt fantastic. The global hub towns are much smoother with fewer warp portals ensuring less loading time between meeting up with your friends and hopping into the dungeons. The new dungeons being showcased are also well made labyrinths filled with powerful coordinated monster groups, tricky bosses, and plenty of puzzle solving goodness.

We had a chance to play through the latest dungeon, Atrium, introduced in Rusty Heart's previous developer diary video. At first it felt like there was no end to the waves of monsters I was cutting through, even with the insane damage output of Frantz. My teammate, a member of the Perfect World team, informed me that this was because there were magical foes hiding in the corners of the room offering support spells and heals to the undead melee fighters keeping us busy.

I quickly rushed to the corners to take out these healers and found that there was much more to them than simple heals. They unleashed powerful ice and lightning spells that continually knocked me back and forced me to learn to effectly block and use Frantz dodge to get into melee range with them. Even after doing this, the mages would heal themselves to prolong the battle further, which only became more difficult when the hobbling undead caught up to me and our 1 on 1 fight became a 5v1 test of survival. I found the best tactic was to grab the healer (he can't heal while I hold onto him) and then use the mage as a projectile weapon to blow back the undead soldiers around him.

Eventually we ambled through the mansion far enough to face the Crimson Gloves boss. Trying to use the old fashioned method of rushing him before his minions could deal much damage proved ineffective. Facing him head on was dangerous and required smart positioning and tactics, both quite time consuming. Meanwhile the 4 healing mages separated in each corner of the room would heal the Crimson Gloves boss for any damage dealt. My partner, playing as Tude, used his flashy aoe skills to lead the majority of minions on a chase while I went around cutting down the healing mages one by one.

This was a race against time since my partner was under constant fire from not only the minions but also the boss and any mages he happened to move to close by in his epic chase sequence. Eventually all the healers had fallen and I was able to rush in behind the Crimson Gloves boss, and we unleashed a 2 man barrage against the behemoth. Frantz phasing dodge proved especially helpful in this battle since the boss moved slowly and was very vulnerable following his massive club swinging attack, particularly if you could quickly get behind him. We finished the dungeon badly battered with a B rating, though I still was grinning from ear to ear. It's not often I get to play an MMO like Rusty Hearts that offers the kind of adrenaline factor you get from chaining combos together and performing well timed dodges to stay alive.

Mark Hill also mentioned a new challenge known as the Underground Training. I was too engrossed in the dungeon to fully cover this but there will be more information in our follow up video walk-through of the PAX booth.